- Passengers allege flydubai crew demanded release of attacking co-pilot.
- Crew's request sparked suspicion among passengers on board.
- Passengers took control, ensuring flight safety after attack.
A fresh detail has emerged in the flydubai scare, with passengers on flight FZ1073 claiming that members of the airline crew reportedly asked them to untie the Omani co-pilot who had attacked the pilot-in-command while the plane was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
According to a New York Post report, the crew members insisted that they were in charge of the aircraft and said they needed to remain alone in the area outside the cockpit. However, passengers, who suspected the crew members' involvement in the incident, asked them to leave the cockpit area.
The development comes after Omani citizen Hamam al-Hammami was identified as the flydubai co-pilot who attacked Indian Captain Smit Machchhar and allegedly attempted to take control of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight on September 30.
The flight was carrying 174 passengers when it transmitted emergency signals and made a rapid descent of more than 17,000 feet, dropping from an altitude of 34,000 feet.
ALSO READ: 'Terrorist Act': UAE Probe Reveals flydubai Co-Pilot Attacked Indian Captain With Crash Axe
Meanwhile, the captain was lying injured on the cockpit floor when he realised that the plane was descending and decided to make "one last push" to open the cockpit door, according to the BBC.
This allowed passengers to overpower the attacker. Two reserve pilots then took control of the aircraft and landed it safely at Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk city, where al-Hammami was taken into custody.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said on Saturday that the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a "terrorist attack" with an axe during the flight.
What did Israeli passengers say?
Israeli passengers alleged that the flight crew clashed with them after they restrained and tied up the Omani co-pilot, according to the New York Post.
“They were asking us to untie the terrorist - we had no idea why,” said one of the passengers who responded to the emergency-like situation.
Another passenger, identified as Tzvika Manes, said the flydubai crew had asked them to “untie” the co-pilot, while another passenger said this made them "suspicious".
“They were saying to free the terrorist - we got instantly suspicious of them,” Daniel Schlichter, a real estate professional who was sitting in the second row of the flight, alleged.
Manes, along with plumber Yaniv Hayoun and Asaf Rajuan, rushed to confront the co-pilot after Machchhar opened the cockpit door. The passengers got ahold of the co-pilot and restrained him, tying his hands behind his back, first with zip ties and later with headphone wires taken from other passengers.
Manes said Hayoun had heard al-Hammami say “kill me, kill me” while he was being held by passengers. However, some crew members began demanding that he be freed, which led to an argument. The three Israeli passengers said the co-pilot would not be untied under any circumstances, according to The New York Post.
They said, ‘You are not God; you are not going to kill him,'" Manes recalled. “We didn’t want to kill him; we just wanted him not to kill us,” he added.
Passengers then shouted at the crew.
“We shouted at them and told them to sit down,” Schlichter said, adding that the three passengers then asked a “big guy” to stand guard and prevent anyone from entering the cockpit.
“We told them, 'Now the policy is we’re in charge, and you do what we say,’” Manes told the New York Post.
According to CNN, citing a source, al-Hammami was removed from flight training at his previous job over concerns about his radical views and was subsequently given another role at Oman's national airline.
What happened?
On Wednesday, al-Hammami attacked Indian pilot-in-command Smit Machchhar and reportedly attempted to hijack the aircraft. However, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door despite being injured, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the Omani co-pilot.
A second set of pilots onboard then took control of the aircraft, while one of the passengers, a dentist, provided medical assistance to Machchhar until the flight landed safely in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk.